“Pakistan’s refusal to let NATO access its ports and roads into Afghanistan has cost the U.S. Defense Department more than $2.1 billion in extra transportation costs to move supplies and equipment in and out of the country.” (Article link.)

For those who forgot, Pakistan closed the ground route last November after a U.S. airstrike mistakenly killed 24 of its soldiers

Just as bad — maybe worse — this recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle said that now more Pakistanis see U.S. as its enemy, despite our enormous amount of aid.

“In the last couple of years, Washington has earmarked a bigger chunk of its aid to Pakistan for civilian projects, hoping to engender goodwill with the country’s intensely anti-American populace. The latest polling suggests that the strategy hasn’t worked.

“About 75 percent of Pakistanis surveyed regard the United States as an enemy, according to a poll released this week by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. That’s actually up more than 10 percent since three years ago, when 64 percent said they viewed America as an enemy.” (Article)

Two final points.

First, we’ll be giving nearly $3 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan for fiscal year 2012. Second, we’ve given more than $20 billion in military and non-military aid since 2001. (Link.)

Good thing we don’t have any bridges to repair or any ongoing deficits to cut or — umm, this is a stretch — any debt to pay down.

P.P.S. Thanks to all who continue to make my novel Little Man, and the Dixon County War a huge success! It’s gone as high as No. 16 on the Amazon UK Paid List (see here and here), landing smack dab between a Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey book. Learn more about it here.

Yeah, you make a good point. And as long as we’re killing people with drones and have 90,000 troops in Afghanistan, their propagandists and religious teachers will be able to continue to spread all kinds of vile misinformation about us.